Machine for forming laps from sheets of cotton.



N0. 672,2I5. Patented Apr. [6, l90l. W. I. LEWIS. MACHINE FOR FORMING LAPS FROM SHEETS 0F COTTON.

(Application filed Sept. 25, 1895.)

(No Model.)

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WILLARD I. LEWIS, on wALPoLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

MACHINE FOR FORMING LAPS FROM SHEETS or COTTON.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 672,215, dated April 16, 1901. Application filed September 25, 1895. Serial No. 663,586. (No models To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLARD I. LEWIS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Walpole, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts,have in vented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Forming Laps from Sheets of Cotton, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

As is well known, various machines which are employed in the treatment and preparation of fibrous materials form the latter into sheets, the said sheets being wound or coiled into laps. The laps in some cases are transferred to other machines and fed into the latter for further treatment, while in other cases they are packaged and shipped for use in the arts.

My invention has relation to the devices or mechanism by means of which the winding or coiling of the sheets of fibrous material into laps is effected; and it consists in a novel and improved combination of parts which I will now proceed to describe fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, the distinguishing characteristics of the invention being particularly pointed out and distinctly defined in the claims at the close of this specification.

Figure 1 of the drawings illustrates in 1ongitudinal section one embodiment of my in- Vention. Fig. 2 is a similar View illustrating a second embodiment of the invention. Fig. 3 is a similar View illustrating a third embodiment.

Heretofore in the manufacture of laps of cotton and the like it has been customary to employ a roller or the like as a center on which to coil the lap, the winding of the sheet of cotton about the said roller being started by an operator by pressing the advancing end of the said sheet down onto the surface of the said roller. When the lap has been wound to the required size, the roller has to be withdrawn from the lap, and the starting operation is then repeated. As will be obvious, this work requires the constant attendance of the operator. The aim of my invention is to obviate the necessity for the constant attendance of the operator and to render the operations in connection with winding of laps as nearly automatic as possible. With this aim in view I provide devices operating to start automatically the winding of sheets of fibrous material into lap form and continue and complete such winding, all as I now will proceed to explain.

In accordance with my invention I employ a moving conveyer working adjacent to devices for delivering thereto fibrous material in sheet form, the said delivering devices being usually, though not necessarily, the delivering devices of the machine in which the fibrous material is prepared in sheet form. A suitable form of conveyer is constituted by the endless belt or apron O in each of the figures of the drawings. In each case the belt or apron 0 passes around a pair of rollers, such as those which are designated B B in Fig. 1, motion being communicated to the said belt or apron and rollers in customary manner, usually through power applied to one of the said rollers, whereby the conveyer belt or apron and its rollers are caused to move in the directions which are indicated by the arrows adjacent thereto in the various figures of the drawings. The devices for delivering fibrous material in sheet form to the moving conveyer C may be represented by the pair of rolls designated 1 l in Fig. 3 of the drawings. The sheet of fibrous material which passes from the delivering devices aforesaid to the moving conveyer C is supported and fed by the said moving conveyer. In conjunction with the said moving con veyer I employ a drag device which is disposed in the path of the sheet of fibrous material while the latter is being supported and fed along by the said conveyer, the said drag device engaging with the advancing sheet and operating to coil the latter into a roll or lap. I have usually constructed the said drag device of flexible material capable of taking a frictional hold upon the sheet of fibrous material.

Fig. 1 shows a form of the invention in which a bar F is mounted adjacent to the receiving end of the conveyer-belt O, the said bar being attached to the side boards E, only one of which latter is shown. To the bar F is applied the belt. or apron G, both ends of which hang from the bar F and rest upon the upper surface of the conveyer-belt O, the depending front end g of the belt or apron G being much shorter, however, than the rear end 9 thereof. As the front end of a sheet D of cotton or other material in fibrous form is received onto the top surface of the conveyer-belt and is fed along by the movement of the said conveyer-belt it passes under and in contact with the extremity of the front end or portion g of the belt or apron G, and the frictional engagement of the said part 9 of the belt or apron G detains the front end or edge of the sheet D, rolling it over upon the adjacent portion of the sheet D, and thereby causing the said sheet D to begin to coil into a roll. This continues until the coil or roll thus started (see the right-hand side of Fig. l) is carried out from under the part g of the belt or apron G by the onward movement of the conveyer-belt 0. As soon, however, as the said coilor roll meets the longer portion g of the belt or apron G the coiling operation is resumed and continues until the coil passes out from under the free extremity of the portion g of the belt or apron G. Fig. 1 shows at the left-thereof a roll or lap which is practically complete. It is contemplated that in using the devices which are represented in Fig. 1 the sheet D of fibrous material shall be severed transversely at predetermined intervals, thereby forming the said sheet into lengths, each of the latter being of the extent proper for constituting the required lap and the devices which I have described being proportioned to enable each lap to be fully wound before being discharged at the delivery end of the portion 9 of the belt or apron G. As one length follows another through the devices of Fig. l the coiling or rolling of a fresh lap will be begun by the portion 9 of the belt or apron G while the coiling or rolling of the preceding lap is being completed by the part g of the said belt or apron.

In the devices of Fig. 1 the belt or apron G is attached to or connected with the cross-bar F. If desired, I may make use of a belt or apron which has movement communicated thereto. Thus in Fig. 2 I have shown a moving belt or apron G disposed above the conveyer belt or apron O. This belt or apron G passes around a small roller I, which is disposed above the con veyer-belt 0, near the receiving end of the said conveyer belt or apron, and the belt or apron G passes also between a pair of feed-rollers H H, to which latter rotary movement is communicated in suitable manner to cause the belt or apron G to travel. By the foregoing means the portion of the belt or apron G which is next adjacent to the conveyor-belt O is caused to move in the opposite direction to the adjacent portion of the said conveyer-belt O. In the case of this construction and arrangement as soon as the front end of a sheet of cotton passes under the roller I the belt or apron G will catch the said front end and cause the sheet to roll upon itself until the whole length of the said sheet has been rolled up into the form of a lap. The speed of the conveyer-belt 0 must be of the construction and arrangement of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a construction and arrangement in which the end of the sheet of fibrous material while being supported and fed by the conveyer-belt 0 passes under and in contact with a drag belt or apron G the elevated end of which latter is secured to a suitable bar 3, extended across the machine above the conveyer-belt 0. As the sheet of material is fed forward by the onward movement of the conveyer-belt O the roll which is formed by the action of the drag belt or apron G gradually is carried onward and out from under the free end of the said belt or apron G and passes thence to lap winding and compressing mechanism, which receives the partiallyformed roll or lap from the drag device and completes the formation of the wound lap, giving it compactness and density. In the present instance the said lap winding and compressing mechanism comprises the roller B, around which the conveyor-belt 0 passes at the delivery end of the devices, the lower roll K, which is located adjacent to and cooperates with the said roller B,and the presserroller K. The roll as it issues from under the free end of the belt or apron G passes into the space which is inclosed by the three rolls B K K, (see Fig. 3,) and by the action of the said rolls the winding of the lap is completed and the same is compressed while being wound. I have shown the compression as provided for in the manner which is customary in lap-winding machinesthat is to say, I mount the roller K in hearings on vertical rods L, there being one such rod on each side of the machine and the lower end of each of the said rods being formed with a rack, the teeth of the said rack being in gear with a pinion M, mounted upon a shaft N, upon which shaft is secured a friction-wheel P, the periphery of which latter is in contact with another friction-wheel Q, which can be adjusted in any suitable manner to retard the rising of the roller K in the required degree, so as thereby to secure the desired compression of the lap.

When desired, a stick J may be placed upon the advancing front end of the sheet D of fibrous material prior to the engagement of the said front end with the drag device. I have shown such a stick J in Fig. 3 with the beginning of a lap coiled therearound, and I have also shown in the said figure a practically-completed lap being acted upon by the lap-winding mechanism and having such a stick J at its center.

In treating of the constructions and arrangements which are represented in Figs. 1 and 2 I have referred to the sheet D of fibrous material as severed transverely into lengths, each sufficient to constitute a wound lap. Various means of eifecting the severing have been employed in practice, and it is unnecessary to present the same in detail herein. I have represented in Fig. 3, however, certain parts which will render clear the manner in which the severance of the strip may in some cases be effected. Thus in the said Fig. 3 the sheet of fibrous material before being received on the conveyer belt or apron 0 passes between the pair of rollers 1 1, which rotate with the same surface speed as the said conveyer belt or apron and deliver to the latter. Above the roller B, at the receiving end of the said conveyer belt or apron, I locate the presserroll 4, it acting to compress the sheet of fibrous material against the upper surface of the said conveyer belt or apron where the latter is in contact with the said roller B. At intervals in the working of the parts the rollers 1 1 are arrested in their rotation by means of wellknown mechanism, (not necessary to be presented herein,) and the continued draft of the belt or apron G and presser-roll 4 breaks or severs the sheet of fibrous material adjacent to the said rollers 1 1. After this has been efiected the rollers 1 1 are set in motion again and continue in motion until a length of the said sheet of fibrous material sufficient to form a lap has passed between them, whereupon they are again temporarily arrested.

I claim as my invention-- 1. The combination with devices for delivering fibrous material in sheet form, of a conveyer to support and feed said sheet, means for moving said conveyer, a drag device disposed in the path of the sheet while being fed along by the said conveyer and engaging with the advancing end of the sheet to coil it into a roll, substantially as described.

2. The combination with devices for delivering fibrous material in sheet form, of a conveyer carrying said sheet forward, means. for moving said conveyer, and a frictional drag device engaging with the advancing end of the fibrous material to coil it into a roll, substantially as described.

3. The combination with a conveyer to support and feed forward a sheet of fibrous material, means for moving said conveyer, a drag device disposed in the path of the said sheet while being fed along by the said conveyerand engaging with the advancing end of the sheet to coil it into a roll, and lap-winding mechanism receiving such roll from the drag device and completing the formation of the wound lap, substantially as described.

4. The combination with a conveyer receiving fibrous material in sheet form, and operating to support and feed said sheet, and means for moving said conveyer, of a drag device disposed in the path of the sheet while being fed along by the said conveyer and engaging with the advancing end of said sheet to coil it into a roll and means to move said drag device oppositely with relation to the travel of the sheet, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, on this 15f h day of January, A. D. 1895.

WILLARD 1. Lnvvrs.

Witnesses:

CHAS. STEERE, EDWIN PLANTA. 

